Webslinging in Tokyo3
by Kindled Chime
Summary: Shinji Ikari has been Superman and Batman, and a few more. I think it's time he tried his hands at wallcrawling....
1. Chapter 1

_I know I shouldn't do this but this fic is something that's been knock around in my head for a while. I decided to do it to take my mind off my other fics for a while. As such the chapters will be much shorter than I usually put out, but may come more frequently, in between the chapters of XVII and anything else I start. Worry not, XVII is still coming along nicely, the delay was due to the fact that I moved house and it took an age to get the webternet up and running again. This little piece is set in what I like to call 'the happy years' of the Eva story arc: i.e. before the shit begins to hit the fan. After about the 11 Angel -when the pilots are getting on the best- not that that's saying much...- the Angels stop coming. I'll explain why later, but it's not relevant to the plot. As such the Eva's are pretty useless in this story. Time has passed..._

_And so it begins..._

_I don't own Evangelion or Spider-man_

**Red and Blue.**

"Hurry up, Ikari!" Shinji gasped aknowledgement and tried to sprint faster, keeping his tall friend in sight as he beckoned impatiently. Kensuke ran just ahead of him, arms windmilling and legs flailing in some spastic excuse for a run. A few seconds later both of them scrambled up the metal steps and onto the waiting school bus. Shinji couldn't help but notice the faces smirking at the two of them out the windows as they ran, each seemingly amused at the two stooges graceless entrance. Doubled over trying to fill his lungs with sweet, lifegiving oxygen Shinji was hit by the stifling heat of the bus' interior. Hearing the desolate groan from next to him it seemed he wasn't the only disappointed one. Scrubbing the sweat out of his eyes he followed the exhausted Kensuke down the middle of the bus towards the seats Touji had managed to save for them, ignoring the smirks on route, and trying not to meet the eyes of the teachers that were accompanying them..

"Looks like the Stooges strike again. Geez, it's not like it's hard to be on time for a bus..." Asuka's voice, quiet but just loud enough to carry - just as she had intended - made Shinji stiffen slightly when he heard it before continuing onwards. It was too hot for him to care about her jibes. The laughter of the other students made his face brighten slightly, fortunately unnoticeable over the flush he was already sporting after the unintended physical excess of a few minutes ago. Reaching the seat Touji had saved he collapsed into it thankfully, before groaning at the feel of the warm leather on his back and legs.

Kensuke had slumped down in his seat next to Touji and was still gasping for breath. Shinji moved his neck sluggishly to look over the back rest at him in amusement. Eventually Kensuke raised his head and leant back in his chair. Touji glanced between the two of them.

"So did you manage to get it?" Kensuke grinned tiredly, his breathing falling back to normal. Triumphantly he held up his palm computer and nodded. Touji grinned and high fived him excitedly. Shinji shook his head tiredly and slumped further down into his seat. Three years and they still hadn't changed a bit. He stared out the window at the passing scenery, hearing the two of them whispering animatedly behind him.

Three years. He'd been in Tokyo-3 three years now. He sighed and watched the trees flash past. So much had changed, and at the same time not much at all. The Angel's had stopped coming after the 11th - some kind or virus in the Magi. He hadn't been told much and only that months after it had actually happened so he didn't know much. But that had marked the end of the battles. Aside from that his life still ran the same track for the most part. He still went to Nerv for sync tests, just in case the Angel's ever did return. He still lived with Misato Katsuragi in her tiny apartment. And his best friends were still Touji and Kensuke.

This was his life. He couldn't help but smile. It was his life and he was happy with it. Shinji's mind skipped to his friends, hearing Touji's muffled whoop of excitement behind him. In three years their friendship had grown and strengthened. It had gotten to the point where they were nearly inseparable. Misato had told him they were more like brothers than friends. Friends can go through a lot in three years.

He and Kensuke had convinced - well, badgered, bullied, threatened and harassed - Touji into asking out Hikari Horaki two and a half years ago and the two were still together. Hiraki understood the bond the three of them shared and didn't begrudge her boyfriend the time he spent with them. It didn't matter much. As often as not she and Asuka would end up joining the three of them and Touji always seemed to find one or two nights to be alone with her, be it taking her to dinner or seeing a movie or just hanging out. Shinji had to admit he was surprised at his sometimes clueless friend being such an attentive boyfriend, but was glad it was the case. Sadly Hikari had transferred schools to an American one at the beginning of the term, as part of an exchange opportunity the two school were running. She would be back at the end of the term, in summer and though the two of them kept in touch via email and phone it was clear that Touji was missing her.

He and Touji had been there when the first girl Kensuke asked out - a Sumiko Naresawa - turned him down. It wasn't cruel or crushing but the otaku had still been understandably disappointed. They had rented an absurd amount of old Godzilla movies and spent the weekend having a marathon, before collapsing into giant lizard induced comas. Kensuke hadn't asked many people out since then but it always seemed to Shinji it was more that he hadn't found anyone he really liked in that way, rather than just being to afraid to ask anyone out. He seemed happy living the single life and was content to keep doing so.

Three years. And they were still his best friends. He heard another whoop behind him and grinned. They really hadn't changed at all. Kensuke had gotten himself and Touji hooked on an anime series a year ago. Whenever it was on they were practically bonded to the couch and refused to move unless the building was falling in. Hikari had given it up as a lost cause after a few nights, seemingly chalking it up as one of her boyfriend's quirks. It had recently been announced that a movie of the anime was being released and the fan-boy mania had started anew. Every time they met the first things Kensuke and Touji did were exchange any new info they had on the movie, it's plot or a release date. In their spare time they scoured the net for sources information. The period before they left for the annual school trip - this year to Nerv Industrial Technology Labs - had been a free so they had immediately congregated around the computer in the library sifting the web. Shinji had tagged along out of boredom. The trip to NITL was to be the subject of their report in Biology and was therefore pretty much essential for all students to attend. Especially the three stooges, who all needed good marks in the class to stop their grades rapid descent.

Just as they were meant to leave for the bus Kensuke had stumbled across a trailer of the movie on a web site and feverishly began to download it onto his palm computer. Touji had been told to run on ahead and hold the bus. At first he had refused, saying that there was no way he was going to leave at such a momentous occasion as this. He argued that Shinji could go.

Kensuke disagreed with him, saying that he was faster as well as being belligerent enough to be able to hold the bus. He didn't think Shinji would be able to do it. He had flashed an apologetic grin as he said and the brown haired pilot had waved off the comment with a smile. Touji had still seemed indecisive until Kensuke had stood and grabbed him by the shoulders.

"If you don't do this we won't have time to download the full trailer for 'Funi Bunshin 5000'. The bus will leave without us. We just can't take that risk. Our grades can't take that risk. We need you to do this." Touji's face had hardened in determination and he nodded resolutely. "For the Bunshin?"

"For the Bunshin, buddy." The two had embraced, garnering several weird looks from the rest of the library and a tired sigh from Shinji. He liked the way they hadn't even considered not downloading the trailer until another time, in favour of there grades. Which in short, was why he and Kensuke had been forced to sprint from the library to the bus in the courtyard, praying that it had not left without them. Sure they could always rely on Touji to take notes and then copy his... but Touji was not well known for his note taking. The last time Shinji had been forced to borrow his notes he had spent more time actually deciphering the scratchings that Touji insisted was writing than he did actually concentrating on the subject matter. So that was out of the question then. They _had_ to be on that bus. Exactly why Shinji had ended up sprinting for his life when he didn't even care about the damn thing was an area on which he was still hazy.

Right now the two of them were watching the trailer on Kensuke's palm computer. He had swapped his camera for the tiny gadget a while back on the grounds that the palm had a built in camera as well and it could do much more as well so he told everyone that he was upgrading. Shinji watched them writhing in the seat, trying to conceal their excitement and not doing a very good job of it. Touji plainly wanted to start punching the sky in pure joy and Kensuke wasn't that far behind. They had their heads together, with one ear bud each and were staring at the tiny screen on the palm avidly. Shinji shook his head and looked around the bus for something else to occupy his attention, seeing as his two friends were distracted.

His eyes, as always, were drawn to the unusual. And in a sea of brown and black hair and blue haired girl and a redhead were very unusual. Rei and Asuka sat next to each other a few rows ahead of him. While not the best of friends they had become closer since the end of the Angelic attacks. Sometimes Rei would be seen with Hikari and Asuka now, thought it was a bit much to say that the redhead had ever actually taken a liking to the taciturn albino it had gotten to the point where she tolerated her company. If Hikari had been there it would most likely have been her sitting next to the volatile redhead rather than Rei. Rei had not really changed - not becoming much more loquacious at all, but she seemed more at ease in other people's company. She freely spoke to Shinji now, if only to exchange greetings or basic enquiries into his health. Asuka... Asuka was Asuka and that's all there really was to it. You don't expect a tornado to suddenly invert itself and you don't expect Asuka Langley Sohryu to change. She had moved out of Misato's apartment at the beginning of the year, stating that it really was too crowded in the tiny home. She had been relocated to the apartment next door and very little had actually changed. She was still around at Misato's for dinner most nights seeing as Shinji was the only one who could actually cook and they still walked to school together in the morning. The only real difference was that he didn't have to battle for the bathroom in the morning anymore.

"So... what's this trip about again?" Touji's words and Kensuke's exasperated sigh signalled that they were finished with their obsession for another day. Well, for a few hours at least.

"We're going to Nerv Industrial Technology Labs to look at some of the basic work they've done with gene splicing." Touji's blank look made it clear that this explanation had not helped matters much. The bespectacled otaku sighed again. "Gene splicing is where they mix the genetic makeup of two or more species together." The dawn of understanding shone in the jock's eyes.

"Like an octo-parrot?"

"Well, uh, yeah, I suppose..." Touji's face curled into a grin.

"Cooool."

Shinji rested his face in the palm of his hand and sighed.

"Keep together now! We don't want anyone wondering off and getting lost. This is an extensive facility and..." Mostly ignoring their sensei's warnings of dire retribution for any who should stray from the preset path, the three Stooges brought up the rear of the group, Kensuke avidly scanning his palm's camera lens across anything that caught his attention, Shinji with his hands in his pockets and his eyes on the floor and Touji with his arms behind his head and gazing up through the elaborate glasswork of the foyer ceiling. The crowd of students came to a halt in the centre of the extensive entrance hall, standing in the centre of the bustle of the Industrial Labs. Shinji looked up to see their aged teacher was speaking to a dusky woman with obsidian hair in a lab coat that vaguely reminded him of Ritsuko Akagi. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Asuka sighing impatiently and resting her fists on her hips in her trademark stance of annoyance. Rei stood by with her hands clasped without any determinable emotion.

"So when do we get to see the octo-parrot?"

"There aren't gonna be any octo-parrots! Or any penguin-wallabies! Or anything else similar!" Kensuke turned to his taller friend in exasperation only to sweatdrop as he heard the jock mumbling under his breath.

"Penguin-walrus, huh?...Cooool." Shinji smiled. The teacher turned away from the lab-coated woman and addressed the class.

"All right students!" The group quietened down, dropping into silence. "This is Dr Naomi Stresser. She'll be being our guide today. Please save any questions until the end." The caramel skinned woman stepped forward and smiled at the mass of teenagers. Her voice held the soft lilt of an American accent.

"Hello to you all. As your sensei has already told you my name is Naomi Stresser and I'm one of the Section Heads here at the Labs. As you all know we are going to be looking at some of the basics of gene slicing and some of the earlier specimens of our research." A not-so-very-hushed murmur spread through the crowd at her words. It seemed the majority of the students had the same ideas as Touji in mind. Naomi smiled again and raised her hands, beckoning for quiet. After a few seconds the mass complied. "Unfortunately these specimens will be rather... tame compared to what you are probably hoping for. There won't be any... oh, I don't know, um...octo-parrots for example." She grinned and shrugged her shoulders, suddenly looking startlingly young.

Shinji heard Touji choke on air next to him over the slight disappointed groans and chuckles of the class. He turned to see his friend's eyes bulging and his jaw hanging loosely.

"It's a sign... It must be!" Shinji sighed and turned away from the jock, despairing. Naomi had apparently carried on speaking because the rest of the class was moving away towards a hallway to the left. Shinji and Kensuke made to follow them with a slightly dazed and suspicious Touji bringing up the rear. The corridor itself was reminiscent of the ones in Nerv headquarters, complete with moving walkway. The left side of the hallway was a transparent window, opening out into a series of labs below. Each one was compartmentalised and sealed from the rest, their high vantage point leaving them able to see the whole of the complex like a 2D floor plan rather than the 3D actuality. Shinji watched in curiosity as men shuffled around the rooms wearing bulky yellow contamination suits. He had seen something similar used in the coolant cylinders of the bakalite chambers at Nerv, but knew these ones were being used to maintain a sterile environment in the laboratory rather than to protect the user.

The had arrived at the end of the corridor and stepped off the moving walkway last, though Kensuke stumbled slightly because he was concentrating more on looking through the sight of his palm computer then on where he himself was stepping. Touji still looked slightly zoned out and was mumbling to himself. There was a brief pause while Naomi slid a thin access card hung around her neck through a slot reader allowing the doors to open before the class dutifully trooped through into the area beyond.

Eight tiny eyes watched them enter without interest. They were far too big for it to concern itself with.

Shinji heard Kensuke gasp lightly next to him and watched him pan the camera sight up into the shadows that shrouded the high ceiling. The room was almost cavernous by normal standards but years of walking through Nerv's colossal constructs had jaded Shinji a little. Suffice to say it was no Eva cage. However it was at least 6 meters high and at least half again as long in both width and breadth. It appeared to be a lab much like the ones they had seen on their way there, thought the scientists were not wearing the yellow contamination suits and there seemed to be less of them despite the fact that the room was quite a bit larger than the others.

Naomi walked to the centre of the room, halting and turning to face her audience in front of a set of metal cubes with transparent fronts, nine in all in three rows of three. The ended a couple of inches over the woman's head.

"Normally this is a initial and final analysis department for... well doing exactly what it sounds like, really. All preliminary information and test simulations are done here and all the final data compiled. Basically a 'before and after' room. But since you were all coming today we thought we'd give you a look at some of the specimen data in it's mid stages. Like a cut section of the whole thing in a way. Also..." Naomi smiled again and gestured towards the 'cubes' behind her. You'll get the chance to have a look at one of our first projects and one of the senior professors who worked on the project will talk you through the procedures and techniques used to give birth to this unique creature." She stepped to the side a little and gestured them all closer. The students crowded forward to see what the cages held. Shinji, Kensuke and Touji were left at the back unable to see much of anything.

"So? What is it?" Kensuke muttered, still focusing his attention of on the camera view rather than his own. Seeing as the palm had a zoom function on it he was probably getting a better view then Shinji was. Naomi laughed.

"Maybe this will give you a better view." She pulled a small cylindrical object out of her lab coat, much resembling a fountain pen and pointed it to a large screen that Shinji had not thus far noticed. The flat screen flickered to life and showed a blown up image of what looked like a tiny arachnid. The body was bulbous and it's legs were relatively small and slender. Shinji had seen plenty of spiders and this one seemed more like a tiny money spider but bigger, instead of a tarantula or anything larger. However it's colouring was very distinctive. The majority was a dark cobalt blue, while it's legs and parts of it's abdomen were a bright crimson. The markings on the abdomen looked like a twisted hourglass that had prominences reaching around the circumference of the spiders's body.

"This is one of our first experimentations of gene splicing. We took the genes and DNA of three separate spiders and combined them to make this new breed. Super spiders if you will. One of the originals produced some of the strongest webs known in existence, capable of holding exceptional weights for it's construction. The second was startlingly strong, able to lift up too twenty times it's own body weight in the most extraordinary cases." As she spoke she gestured with the 'pen' twice and showed the class pictures of two far more mundane examples of the arachnid kingdom. One was a dusty brown and the other a dull black. She continued. "The last was known to be incredibly agile. It's one of the fastest species of spider and capable of almost hilariously long jumps." It struck Shinji suddenly that Naomi didn't much speak like a scientist, as some of the class quietly chuckled at her description.

"The reason I'm being vague about the capabilities of these individual spiders is because I'm not entirely sure what they are. All the exact information will be given to you by the man who headed the project, rather than myself who merely stood over him with a shotgun looking threatening and demanding results." The class all laughed at that.

"Hey, she's not joking. She actually did that kind of thing." A tall dark skinned man - only a few shades lighter than ebony - stepped out from behind the cages, ticking off boxes on the notepad he was holding absently. He grinned at the class, showing off startlingly white teeth. He continued in his deep bass voice. "But when she wasn't trying to pistol-whip progress out of me, Naomi made a great boss." The dark haired woman rolled her eyes before speaking.

"This is the project head, Samuel Masset. My subordinate." The last was thrown offhand at the tall man with a smirk. It was the man's turn to sigh and roll his eyes.

"Yeah well, whatever. Anyway we might as well get started then, unless anyone had any questions I can get out the way quickly?" He looked at the crowd expectantly. A boy named Shoji nearer the front raised his hand, along with a few others. Samuel noticed the young man first and gestured for him to speak.

"Why did you pick a spider? I mean, it's not like there's much point in creating a super-spider is there?" Samuel shook his head.

"In terms of practicality, no, not really. When we designed the spiders we were more interested in testing out the theory behind the gene splicing techniques we thought might work rather than actually producing something of any real use to anyone. Next?" The dark man gestured to Tokio, a girl with a high pony tail and thin framed glasses.

"How long do the new spiders live for?"

"About six months. To be honest, the ones in the cages are third generation. We originally engineered two females and four males, to make breeding a potential but not overdo it. The ones here are part of a much larger collective we have stored elsewhere. Yes, you there?" A boy Shinji couldn't see spoke, but he wasn't really paying attention. He had followed Kensuke over to the cages, which eh rest of the class had left to get a better view of the screen. The otaku was trying to get a close-up of the small arachnid on his recording facility.

"There we go..." He spoke softly, under his breath. Since the beginning of the year he had been a photographer for the school newspaper and it's internet cousin. As such he had decided to get as much footage as possible. Having finished recording some video of the spider in motion he stepped back to get a few snaps for the paper. As he was squinting through his view finder a red blur obscured his view.

"What are you doing?" Shinji and Kensuke looked up to see Asuka in the way of the shot. Rei was standing a little way to the side.

"Taking pictures for the paper." Kensuke answered shortly, before shifting his position to see around her. She moved with him almost absently.

"So you'll be needing someone to stand in shot then?" Shinji blinked at this quasi-galactic leap in logic. Kensuke, on the other hand, saw it as an opportunity to annoy the redhead, something he was privately lobbying should be made an official school extra-curricular activity.

"Yeah I suppose I will...Hmm..." Asuka's triumphant smirk shattered like thin porcelain at his next words. "Ayanami? Would you mind? It'll just take a second." The blue haired girl stepped forward quietly, her attention drawn away from the beginning of the explanation that Samuel was providing the rest of the class. Asuka fumed silently. For a change. Suddenly Kensuke's grin, was swept of his face by the tsunami of fear as she leaned in towards him, eyes sparking furiously. Shinji looked around hurriedly, finding no one looking in their direction and Touji standing nearby and staring off into the distance.

"Hey, why don't you both stand in the shot?" Asuka's attention turned to him, her eyes burning into him rather unnervingly. After a few seconds she reigned in her laser stare and huffed quietly.

"Fine. Come on Wondergirl." Asuka pulled the taciturn girl towards the cages and quickly stood where Kensuke directed her, mumbling comments about he was undoubtedly perverted for thinking about positioning her body like she was some kind of Barbie doll. Kensuke quickly took snaps of the girls -Rei looking expressionlessly at the camera and Asuka doing the spontaneous cute face she managed so well.

"Mood swing much?" Shinji muttered under his breath, through a small smile. Kensuke continued to take a few more pictures, turning his camera to a portrait angle and then repeating the shots so he had back-ups. Asuka asked why it was taking so long and he replied that he needed different shots so the editor had more options about what to do with the articles presentation. She seemed mildly offended that he actually had a legitimate reason.

Shinji continued to watch and listen in amusement. Abruptly he noticed a shimmering silver thread hanging next to his face. Staring at it for a few seconds in confusion he lifted his hand to touch the thin strand. A few seconds before he came into contact with it, his hand erupted in pain. Grunting louder than he intended Shinji jumped back a bit, cradling his suddenly inflamed hand, watching a distinctive blue and red shape fall to the ground and try to scuttle away. The brown haired otaku turned to see what was the matter and absently stepped on the small arachnid in the process. Shinji kept staring at the place it had been, an area now occupied by Aida's foot.

"Shin-man? You ok?" Shinji snapped his head up to look at his friend and seeing Asuka looking at him with a frown and Rei regarding him stoically from over his shoulder. He opened his mouth to reply that he was fine - the pain had quickly faded to nothing - before he realised he was feeling very faint and dizzy. A few seconds later he felt himself falling and heard the dull cries of the others through the roaring and howling of his own blood in his ears..

"Shinji!"

"Ikari!"

_Well that's the first chapter done. All the other chapters will be done the same length - around and about. The plot line will be very different from accepted Spider-man canon so don't worry. Its not going to be Spider-man but with Shinji Ikari. There'll be more to it then that. More importantly who do you readers want to end up playing as Mary-Jane? I need a reason people. Not just a demand. All reviews welcome. Yes, even the bad ones._

_Ja Ne - Till laterer is now._


	2. Chapter 2

_I'm blitzing today it seems. Thus far this is the third fic I've worked on today. Isn't life grand when you have nothing to do? Anyway, I'm glad for the response I received when people reviewed the first chapter. I hope the rest lives up to your expectations. And if it doesn't... meh. Anyway, here we go people! More from your not-particularly-friendly probably-doesn't-live-in-your-neighbourhood Fanfiction author! Hmm. Doesn't quite have the same ring to it..._

_For disclaimer see first chapter._

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The light shining in his left eye was what woke the boy up. It jolted him into wakefulness and shocked the doctor who was holding the small torch over his pupil as well. The elderly man grinned as he looked down at the confused youth.

"Feeling a bit better now?" Shinji sat up gingerly, seeing he was in a medical centre and propped onto a bed. The man continued. "You collapsed when you were upstairs with your class. The woman showing you around was frantic." The man grinned slightly. The event's of earlier came rushing back to Shinji. Hurriedly he checked his hand, remembering a certain blue and red arachnid, now featured exclusively on the underside of his friends shoe. All that was left was a pair of red spots on his wrist, resembling two mosquito bites next to each other. The doctor didn't seem to notice. Instead he continued to smile absently at the boy, while adjusting his glasses.

'_He grins far too much for someone who spends their time in a medical wing.'_ Shinji thought absently.

"Why don't I get your friends? They've been waiting outside since you were brought in." The elderly man asked, his obviously permanent smile still plastered across his wrinkled face. Shinji blinked and nodded dumbly. The man's grin extended slightly as he turned to exit the room. Swinging himself off the mobile bed he was perched on Shinji stood and stretched, blinking as the supposedly loose shirt tightened uncomfortably around his chest and arms. Looking down at himself and adjusting the lie of the fabric across his shoulders his attention was quickly derailed by the sound of his loud friends entering.

"Just admit it demon! You did something to him! Was it your cooking? It was, wasn't it!" Shinji sighed. Touji and Asuka entered first quickly followed by Kensuke and Rei. The former duo were in the middle of a rather loud and pointless argument. As was the norm, sadly.

"Zip it, you walking jock-strap! i had nothing to do with the baka's fainting fit." Kensuke rolled his eyes and then looked beseechingly towards the ceiling, perhaps praying for divine intervention. Rei remained expressionless. Shinji smiled quietly, pleasantly surprised that they had all bothered to wait for him. He blinked, noticing that Rei had appeared at his side, seemingly without crossing the intervening space. He chalked it up to him still being a little woozy.

"Are you well, Ikari?" Shinji shook himself out of his daze and smiled at her, in what he hoped was a reassuring manner. The total lack of facial expression she exhibited made it hard to tell either way.

"Er, yeah I'm fine. Just felt a little-" Asuka planted herself directly in front of the boy and scowled darkly, perhaps annoyed at not having his undivided attention. Poised with her hands on her hips her frown transformed into a smirk, making Shinji twitch slightly in agitation.

"Mien Gott, you are such a baka! First you start spacing out and going all weird," She felt the need to demonstrate her impression of his state by rolling her cerulean eyes and swaying from side to side like a drunk nailed to the floor before continuing, "and then you just collapse. Weakling." She added as an afterthought. Shinji grinned weakly, opting to ignore the girl's commentary rather than attempt to answer it. Touji wandered up behind the red head sporting a curiously hand shaped red mark on his cheek, indicating who the victor of the previous argument had been.

"Yo, Shin-man, you feeling better?" Shinji nodded and his smile became a shade more genuine.

"Yeah, I'm feeling ok now." Feeling the need to demonstrate his recover he stood up, momentarily worried that he would feel dizzy and have to sit back down, but was pleasantly surprised when he found that this was not the case. He noticed that Rei had moved slightly closer to him as he stood, seemingly prepared to steady him if he fell. He smiled at her quickly, assuring her that he was fine. Her ruby eyes regarded him intently, before her lips quirked into a slight smile and she backed off slightly. Her smiles were more common now, though not by much. Resisting the urge to stretch once more for fear of the shirt tightening uncomfortably again, Shinji settled for rotating his neck slightly to get the kinks out of it.

"Well come on then! Lets get going!" Touji rolled his eyes at Asuka's exuberance but echoed her sentiments.

"Yeah, Shin-man. We better get back to the others." Kensuke grunted in agreement, though he was wheeling around the sick room trying to catch as much of the scenery as possible on his hand computer. Shinji nodded and followed the group out of the door, only noticing that he was receiving weird looks from his friends when they were all in the hallway outside. Well, except for Rei.

"What?" Touji shook his head and frowned, both he and Kensuke's eyes focused on his left hand. Asuka started to guffaw loudly.

"Aw, is widdle Shinji nervous to go out without his blanky?" The German girl had clasped her hands underneath her chin and somehow made her eyes twice as wide as normal, with extra sparkle and shine. Shinji couldn't help but feel his face heat a little under her scrutiny, even if he wasn't sure what she was talking about. Suddenly the strange weight on his left hand registered making him look down in confusion. Seeing the bright blue blanket he had been lying on clutching in his hand his face flared brighter and he tried to snatch his hand away. Strangely this had little effect. The blanket was still in his hand. Asuka was still laughing and Kensuke and Touji both looked puzzled at his unusual behaviour resulting in his frantic shaking of his hand, trying to throw of the blue cloth. Eventually he stopped and pulled his hand closer, seeing that it was, in fact, open and not clutching the blanket at all, though the material was still stuck to his hand. Reaching up with his other hand he attempted to tug it free, before quickly realising that all he had achieved was somehow attaching the cloth to both hands rather than just one.

Asuka had finally had enough, her humour at his situation quickly passing into irritation at what she saw as his deliberate delay. Stomping over to the struggling boy, muttering oaths in German, Japanese and assumedly a dozen or so other languages she grabbed the blanket, though not before a few seconds hesitation where she wondered if this would end up with her somehow stuck to the fabric as well.

"Oh for the love of..." Asuka grabbed the coverlet and, reassured that she wasn't attached to the Third Child by azure coloured stitching, pulled sharply. Unfortunately this resulted in the thin young man being dragged off his feet towards her, in turn over balancing her and leaving them both in an uncomfortable position on the floor. Wincing slightly Asuka looked up to find the struggling boy quietly suffocating in the confines of her bosom. A vein popped out on her head.

"Woo, go Shinji! Can't say much for your taste in women but atta boy!" The vein grew slightly.

"Our little Shinji's growing up... I think I'm misting up!" Kensuke buzzed around the fallen pair, trying to find the perfect angle for his camera to view both Asuka's rage and Shinji's unfortunate predicament. After all if he didn't record it no-one would believe him. It's what friends were for. The vein multiplied in size exponentially.

Shinji, who had apparently figured out what was going on and why it was so dark, had begun screaming in a highly muffled manner and flailing his arms as he pleaded for release, manifestly well aware that his life was probably about to end. Sadly his legs had become entwined with hers in the fall and his attempts to stand were not ending in success. A cracking sound signified that Asuka had in fact had an aneurysm. A blur of crimson and six and a half loud smacks later and the German girl was stalking to the end of the corridor, a miasma of darkness and rage swirling about her, frothing slightly at the mouth. The three boys stood somewhat bewilderedly, swaying in the non-existent breeze, sporting a hand print on each cheek. Rei, looking somewhat peeved considering her usual lack of expression, was sporting a single hand print on her right cheek. She was willing to put that down to over excitement on Asuka's part instead of believing that the redhead had wanted to slap her. Sighing almost imperceptibly she followed the fuming girl to the lift at the end of the corridor, choosing not to nurse her stinging cheek.

At the departure of the cobalt haired young woman, whose eyes seemed a little narrower than usual, Kensuke and Touji snapped out of their Asuka induced daze.

"Dude... you face-planted into her chest..._and you're still alive!_ She loves you. It's the only explanation!" Satisfied that his friends had plunged face first over the boundaries of sanity, Shinji was less than pleased to find he was still stuck to the blanket.

* * *

Shinji stared at his hands, puzzled at the recent events. The group of five had rejoined the rest of the class on their tour, the three boys making sure that Rei stood between them and Asuka at all times, as a kind of protective barrier. The glares the Second Child insisted on sending their way every minute or so reassured them that this was the best course of action for all concerned, except perhaps Rei who would probably get trampled in any of Asuka's future enraged attempts to get to them. They had managed to slip into the middle of a lecture that Samuel was giving on the theory behind the gene splicing project. A slide projector had been set up in the corner and was the only source of ambient light in the room. Shinji had found a seat easily and was at a loss to understand why his friends found it difficult to see. It wasn't bright by any means but he could see just fine. Had he thought about things more carefully he would have hung back and sat down last, but without such foresight he was left with the quietly cursing Asuka on his left side and the taciturn Rei on his right. As much as he liked Rei his hands were twitching to physically pick her up and swap seats with her. He wondered if it was wrong to mentally refer to a friend as a meat shield. Anyway he was fairly sure Asuka wouldn't harm the silent girl under cover of darkness simply to get to him, so it would be ok.

Instead he tried to hunker down as much as possible in the seat and become one with the upholstery. Listening to the lecture proved rather difficult while trying to ignore the violent vibes emanating from the girl next to him.

That had been a couple of hours ago. Since the trip ended later than a normal school day by a good few hours, the class was taking a half hour break in the Labs cafeteria. Unsurprisingly Asuka had chosen not to sit with the three boys and Rei had opted to keep her company in what Kensuke had referred to as 'an unusual display of suicidal intent' under his breath. And so the three stooges were sat at a table sifting through their cafeteria food with their plastic utensils. Kensuke and Touji were taking the time to watch the trailer to their anime show's debut on the big screen one more time and were gyrating madly from left to right. Shinji was debating whether or not it was worth leaving them to their own devices and sitting else where, but decided resignedly to stay.

Three tables away Asuka Langley Sohryu was doing her best to glare a hole in the back of Shinji Ikari's head. Thus far it was having little effect.

"I can't believe he did that! Taking the opportunity to grope my beautiful body when I took the time to help him -" Rei Ayanami's eyebrow quirked slightly at the reference to 'help'. "- and now my sacrosanct body has been defiled by that, that pervert." Twin waterfalls of tears erupted from Asuka's bright blue eyes as she wept for the degradation inflicted upon her pristine body. Rei's lifted eyebrow twitched slightly. The loud slam of the volatile redheads shoe on the bench drew the First Child's attention again. Asuka was standing with one foot braced on the bench, glaring at the sky with one hand clenched and held above her head. She looked like she was trying to uppercut God.

"Vengeance must be had!" Rei calmly continued to eat her rice. Sweeping her eyes across the area in front of her Asuka searched for some method of dispensing justice, warped as it may be. Grinning widely when she noticed the small plastic soy sauce bottle sitting in the middle of her table, the redhead snatched it up and took aim. Before Rei could attempt to dissuade her she had lined up her shot and launched the small brown bottle at the back of the Third Child's head, who at the time seemed to be having some kind of disagreement with his hand.

Shinji was lethargically working his way through his small meal, trying to ignore the squeals of happiness emanating from his two friends until they died down. After one last, 'For the Bunshin, buddy!' from each of them they went back to their meals, having gotten their daily fix of animated goodness. As the cafeteria was small and not extensively stocked it came with plastic knives and forks rather than traditional Japanese disposable chopsticks. This was assumedly because only a very small percentage of the workers at Nerv Labs were actually Japanese. While Nerv bases existed across the globe Nerv Labs in Tokyo-3 was the largest of it's kind and had therefore attracted the talented from all over the world rather than just within the Japanese nation. Seeing as the majority of the staff ate with knives and forks it made more sense to keep those in stock. Shinji hadn't missed Asuka's muttered 'Hallelujah' when she this out upon entering the cafe. She had never gotten totally used to chopsticks in her time in Japan.

Finished with his food, Shinji set down the utensils and leant his chin on his hand to wait for his two friends. The sudden pain in his right cheek jarred him out of any pleasant daze he might have been slipping into and brought his attention immediately to his hand. Frowning in unease he saw that the plastic fork had stuck to his hand, in the same manner that the blanket had before. Pulling it off felt like stripping off a band-aid, or like it was velcro-ed to his skin. He examined his palm curiously, before realising that the fork was now stuck to the fingertips of his left hand. Shaking his hand quickly in an attempt to dislodge the utensil, he noticed that his two friends had started to take note of his problem and were wearing slight grins at his predicament. Shaking his hand harder and now secretly wishing that the plastic fork would fly off and hit one of his fellow stooges in the face, he half heartedly glared at them, more focused on the blur his left hand had become.

Suddenly a sliver of ice began to slip down his spine, making all the hairs on the back of his neck stand erect. Instead of fading the feeling only got stronger, like he was rubbing up against an iceberg. His body seemed to want to react of it's own accord, though what he was supposed to be reacting to was still a mystery. Unnerved he watched the fork suddenly detach from his hand, like there was nothing holding it there at all before his upper body swiveled in it's place. His arm whipped out and snatched a brown blur out of the air, leaving him twisted in his seat and his arm splayed out behind him. Surprisingly it wasn't as uncomfortable as it looked, meaning a position that would have had gymnasts wincing had left Shinji unpained. Out of the corner of his eyes he could see a redhead gaping at him incredulously, before he twisted back around and examined the object he was holding in his hand, slightly shaken. A bottle of 'Kukoken Soy Sauce' greeted him from it's new position, cupped between his fingers. His eyes wandered up to meet Kensuke and Touji's, the first of whom was sitting with a fork layden with rice suspended before his mouth in frozen shock and the latter of which was seemingly experiencing a full body twitch. Shinji blinked, trying not to blush.

"What?" No response. Sighing and deciding it was probably best to just ignore the incident, Shinji adjusted himself into a more comfortable position in the seat. As much as he tried though ignoring the strange occurrences that had sprung up around him recently was getting harder and harder. In truth he was getting a bit worried. Not-so-muffled expletives tinted with a German accent were erupting from behind him, making a icy feeling in his spine start to tingle but in a much less pronounced fashion, as if undecided. It made him shudder anyway. It seemed obvious where the bottle had come from. Ignoring the two males across from him he set the soy sauce down on the sidetop... before realising that it too was stuck to his hand. "...God dammit."

* * *

"Look I don't know what happened, ok? I just got really lucky or something." The three boys were walking home from their school, seeing as the bus had dropped them back where it had picked them up from. Since the incident at the cafeteria Kensuke and Touji hadn't stopped harassing him about what had happened, much to his displeasure. Simply telling them that it was a fluke hadn't worked. In fact this had only made the problem worse by sending Touji into a long winded and frankly poorly thought out rant on the laws of 'Flukedom' and how they did not apply to the situation that Shinji had found himself in. This rant had grown so loud that it had disturbed the lecture they had been nominally listening to, and earned Touji a reprimand. The jock hadn't stopped glaring at Shinji through the rest of the lecture, as if it was somehow his fault. The brief lull in questioning had come to an end though when the visit to the Labs had ended leaving Shinji with another influx of questions.

His only hope now was that Asuka hadn't told Misato about what had happened. The last thing he needed was the indigo haired major on his case as well. The German girl had flounced off in a huff as soon as they got off the bus, making it clear that she would not be walking home with them. Ayanami had made her brief good byes and walked in the opposite direction to her home.

Blocking out the babbling of his two fellow stooges Shinji recalled time Rei has moved out of her old appartment. It had finally prevailed on her that it was indeed prudent to move when one of the stairwells had collapsed. No one was injured, but it highlighted the state of disrepair the building was in. Apparently repeated Angel attacks had weakened the foundations and materials of an already shoddily made structure and the rest had only been a matter of time. The three stooges plus Asuka and Hikari had all helped Rei move, though she had little that needed moving and most of the work was done by hired Nerv labourers, but they had been there for it at least.

Her new appartment was much larger than her old one, and obviously in better condition. Their was enough space that she didn't have to double the living room as a bedroom and her kitchen was of a better size. The few times he had visited her with the others since had shown that she did a much more thorough job of keeping the new appartment clean than she had the old one. which wasn't saying much but at least it didn't look like a hazardous waste disposal anymore.

"Misato! I'm home!" The three boys slipped their shoes off at the door and stepped into the hallway. The lack of an answering cry caught Shinji's attention, making him pause for a second before he remembered her shifts had switched over starting that day and therefore she wouldn't be home until much later. He ignored the silent waterfalls of tears both his friends had adopted on finding out this unwelcome news - they would have to go without their regularly scheduled dose of the Nerv Major - and wandered into the kitchen.

Since it was a Friday and they only had a half day of school the next day it was the norm for the three stooges to congregate at one of their homes and hang out. Last week it had been Touji's place where all three boys were thoroughly thrashed by Mari, Touji's sister, at videogames. It had taken some quick restraining from both Kensuke and Shinji to stop the little girl's brother's attempts at re-hospitalising her. Mari seemed unconcerned. Apparently it was a regular occurrence.

The two others had trailed after him and had stationed themselves around the kitchen table to mourn the loss of their mauve maned object of affection. Despite Touji's relationship with Hikari, he still became a gibbering ape when Misato teased him, something that both amused and agitated Hikari. Touji had quickly learned the duck and cover procedure whenever the two females were in the room together. The situation was only exacerbated by the elder woman's apparent glee in torturing him.

"You guys want something to eat?" Both boys gave disappointed grunts.

"...I'll take that as a yes, I suppose." Another pair of grunts followed. Sighing and rolling his eyes Shinji leisurely put together a stack of sandwiches and dropped the plate on the table. The two boys, slightly rejuvenated by the promise of food tucked into the fare with a little more life. Grabbing a ham sandwich for himself, Shinji sat on one of the remaining stools and bit into the white bread and thin meat. The discolouration on his wrist caught his attention first, making him slow his chewing and examine the mark a little closer. A small bump in the contours of his skin at just below his wrist, the tiny nub was a much fainter shade of pink than the rest of his flesh. Putting down the half eaten sandwich Shinji probed at the mark gently with the index finger of his other hand, finding it to be slightly softer than the rest of the arm around it, but springy enough to soon flow back into shape after it had been prodded. While his examination was going on the other two boys had resumed their previous conversation, now beginning to put forward various theories as to how Shinji had caught the bottle of soy sauce.

"Maybe all that time in the Eva has given him superfast reflexes or something! It could be slowly morphing his genetic make-up, rebuilding him to it's design..." Touji's laugh cut off Kensuke's description.

"Yeah, Shin-man's a super hero. Good theory genius." He bit down into his snack again, trying to convey disdain through chewing alone. Kensuke smirked and adjusted his glasses on his nose, taking a smaller bite of his repaste. Finishing quicker than Touji allowed him to speak again first.

"We don't know what all that time in an Eva could do to someone. Besides you saw what happened." The sandy haired youth shrugged expressively. "Do you have any better ideas?" Touji frowned through his chewing. Shinji ignored them both and continued to probe at the small mark on his arm.

"Even having no ideas at all are better than coming up with something like that, otaku boy." Touji said after swallowing. "It's like something out of one of your manga. This isn't a comic book, y'know."

"It could happen!" The dark haired teen snorted.

"Yeah, in your anime based wetdreams, Ken." The spectacled youth chuckled at the jab. It had become a running joke for Touji to refer to his anime and manga habits as obsessive and purile, much in the same way that western thought held it most of the time. In turn Kensuke called him a jock and a meathead. Gesturing with his sandwich Kensuke continued.

"All I'm saying is that prolonged exposure to an Eva might have side effects. How cool would it be if super reflexes or super strength were the result?" Two stars had replaced the military fanatic's eyes as he gazed into a world of his own, one filled with cheesy sentai costumes and corny one-liners. Touji shook his head at his friends naivety.

"C'mon, wouldn't they notice at Nerv if Shin-man suddenly started changing into a super human? I mean they'd notice with all the tests they run right?" Kensuke's dream world came crashing down around him, and his grounding in reality was reawakened. Sighing at the loss, the youth reached for another sandwich on the pile.

"Yeah I suppose you're right..." Touji nodded, looking annoyingly satisfied with himself and chomping a large portion of his ham sandwich in victory.

Shinji had been mostly ignoring the two of them, rather fascinated by the blemish on his skin and still playing with it. It didn't hurt and caused him no real discomfort, so he wasn't too worried about it. He'd probably have the nurse at school look at it tomorrow. He poked the area one last time and nearly spasmed of his chair when a slim white line of fluid exploded from his wrist with a thin whipping sound and shot across the room between the two boys faces, fanning out and sticking itself firmly to the far wall. The area between the two had formed a pattern like a huge web.

Kensuke's glasses slid down his face as he stared in shock. Touji swallowed his food and gestured at the other boy calmly.

"Or I could be wrong." He said mildly, before folding up and falling off the chair.

* * *

_Well there's the second of the chapters in the new saga. As some know my project list has ballooned hugely, so updates for both this and XVII will be a little slower than usual. Rest assured, most of the other projects are one shots so should eat up too much time. Till later all!_


End file.
